Major League Wrestling (MLW) had a dilemma on Friday in Tijuana. The independent promotion had a scheduled show in the midst of the Covid-19 disaster. Still, the show went on.
MLW became some of the few promotions in the world the ran a wrestling show with a crowd. The results were the following:
AAA vs. MLW
March 13, 2020
Auditorio Fausto Guttierez Moreno
Tijuana, BC, Mexico
Carta Brava Jr., Mocho Cota Jr., 7 Tito Santana over Black Destiny, Fantastik, & Rayo Star.
Filthy Tom Lawlor & Garrini over Puma King & Xtreme Tiger.
Richard Holiday over Chessman to retain the Caribbean Heavyweight Championship.
Mortiz & Pagano over Mance Warner & Savio Vega.
Averno over Douglas James.
Alex Hammerstone over Laredo Kid to retain the MLW Openweight Championship.
Brian Pillman Jr. & Davey Boy Smith Jr. over Rey Escorpión & Texano Jr.
Hijo Del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr., & Octagón Jr. over Jordan Oliver, Kotto Brazil, & Myron Reed to retain the AAA Trios Titles.
Hijo de LA Park, LA Park, & LA Park Jr. over Nicho el Millionario, Niño Hamburguesa, & Psycho Clown.
The MLW taping was important for many reasons. The company might not continue with BeinSports after their contract the television station is up. It was reported by Dave Meltzer that Bauer, the owner of MLW, was not in fact in the Tijuana show. The report states the following:
“He said he discussed the situation with his television partners and felt empty arena shows don’t work after watching SmackDown. Even if they did, it’s not something his company could risk doing. The current plan if they can’t return to taping soon would be to do personality profile shows on their top talent through June, and then using archival content, including going back to the original MLW from the early 00s, in July. Bauer noted that New York has a quarantine zone just a half mile from their office in New Rochelle, NY.”
As for what next for MLW, the company had to cancel their April show, Elimination Games. Figure 4 Wrestling reported that:
The Chicago, IL, TV taping at Cicero Stadium was moved from Saturday, April 18th to Friday, June 12th, with all purchased tickets honored.
MLW’s next event is a TV taping at Dallas, Texas’ NYTEX Sports Center on Saturday, May 2nd. That is just outside a 45-day window the promotion said they will not run live events in at which time they will reassess their upcoming schedule which calls for one event per month.
Their weekly hour-long Fusion TV product will continue on BeIn Sports and YouTube as they are currently airing matches taped at their recent Philadelphia, PA, Fightland event with Friday’s MLW vs. AAA event taped in Tijuana coming after that.
